The German dressage fans are having to come to grips with the fact that quite a few of their Grand Prix competitions are being won by an American, Lisa Wilcox riding a team of stallions from one of Oldenburg's largest, and most historic studs.
Georg Vorwerk was one of the great breeders, and an adventurous one, not afraid to travel to France to find great stallions like Furioso and Inschallah. His daughter, Gudula, is also an innovator and the Vorwerk stud, under her guidance was one of the first to tap the emerging market for dressage horses. Certainly Mrs Vorwerk struck it lucky when Rubinstein, partnered with Martina Hann?ver, Rubinstein went within a whisker of making the German Olympic Dressage team.

Ernst Hoya. Her first ride was Regal Dancer and he was about to step out in his first test which is why Lisa was reading the test book and muttering to herself as she traced out the pattern in the indoor school at a walk. She put down the book, picked up the rein and was straight into canter, a nice round canter, and a very nice flying change, the session had only just begun and Lisa was already asking for a very short canter, really making the horse take the weight on his hindlegs, and into a training pirouette, a very small volte making the horse bring his front around his hindquarters. Aside from the occasional slow, deliberate lateral flex, Lisa's hands do not move, they are absolutely quiet and still. Now she is tightening up the pirouettes? we've gone 15 minutes and still not a single step of trot.
According to Lisa, Regal Dancer is not the fastest learner:
'It took 'Richard' forever to learn about the double bridle - I even took him out on
trail rides to get him used to it. It might take him longer to learn than say, Royal Diamond, who is super quick, but when he learns, he remembers. It is a mistake to start comparing horses, you can't get mad at him for not being so fast to learn.'
Next in the ultimate fast learner, Royal Diamond aka Roy the Toy Boy - and a little tip for riders from Lisa. When Roz's camera flash goes off in the Royal Diamond's face, he takes absolutely no notice: 'You see it so often at horse shows, the riders look at what they think the horse will look at. Don't do it.' Again, after a period of walk, Lisa has Roy straight into canter. This time she is working the young stallion in a snaffle, 'I don't need a full bridle until two days before the show' and again the rider is asking very early on for a real shortening in the canter, winding down the circle making the horse use his inside hind leg, and collecting through the corner. Lisa rides with an absolutely classical seat and never ever sacrifices her position, always deep, centred, demanding that the horse carry her - and in the half passes she is exactly in the middle of the saddle. The grey throws off a series of dead straight flying changes, he misses one change, and Lisa immediately circles, and starts the diagonal again. 'That was my fault, I hear my trainer's voice big time - SIT now.' Royal Diamond gets his two times perfectly and Lisa releases him into a relaxing deep canter.
A little refreshing walk and it is into trot, loose and deep, getting that lovely balanced look: 'The goal every day is to work like you want it in the show arena - then showing can be fun, you don't have to be stressed, and neither does the horse. Today we did more canter, yesterday it was more trot. I want to keep him fresh and happy. Sometimes at show after a test I'll put him on a long rein, and you can imagine him lighting a cigar and saying - It wasn't all that tough.' For Rozier, to the photographer?s delight, we move to the outdoor arena, although perhaps it is not entirely to the rider's delight, since there is a little band of mares on the other side of the hedge, and Rozier thinks it might be fun to join them. 'You can't blame him for being a stallion, that's his job,' says Lisa, and proceeds to get him delightfully soft and round, showing some lovely one times changes before they are off for a burn down the long side, then the medium change at X comes up so sweetly, and the horse is back, so collected it is almost cantering on the spot. Lisa even halts right next to a mare: 'I let him look a little. He's so polite about it and it is not interfering with his work. I want him to feel happy.'
Rosey is moving from extended trot to passage back to extended, back to passage, ending with a rising trot deep and round. 'He's doing Prix St George but he is a horse that will really like Grand Prix.'

From an FEI competitor to a real baby - Raoul is just back from his 100 day test where he was 4th with 122 points at the Neustadt-Dosse testing station. 'It's just my second ride with him, I just want to relax him in the indoor. He plays with the bit and pushes his tongue down. I think they must have been using a sharp bit on him, so I've gone to a fat double broken snaffle. You can't blame the riders at the testing station, they have such a short time to get it done. He's got used to just being with the other guys, now he has to learn about mares and foals again. Most important is that he has got to learn that even when he thinks he doesn'twant
to do something, he's got to. Got to learn that I am the boss. That's why I am keeping him deep, I'm giving him lots of direction and security.'

'I ignore what he is doing. I talk to him; I use a lot of voice with young stallions. If you pressure them with your seat, they react negatively, if you relax your seat, they relax. I know when I get to this corner he is going to react, but I'm staying ahead of him in my thoughts, that's how you can help a young horse.' And sure enough, as Lisa croons, 'it's fine, it's fine' young Raoul goes smoothly through that 'bogey' corner.
'By giving him the reins it relaxes the muscles in his neck, instead of tensing the muscles. I don't make any change going into the corner. I am careful, watching but I don't do anything different with my body. I stay relaxed but on my toes so I can react quickly if something goes wrong, but I don't want him thinking - what's she doing with her body?'
'This young stallion has done his performance test, but he is not licensed. We believe in him, and he'll be licensed through the sport.'
On to another youngster, but one that has been in work for a somewhat longer time -
Roadster, a son of Rhodiamant and out of a Furioso mare. 'My aim in this session is to work on the quality of the trot. I want more expression and a steady contact - when he came from the 100 test, he had a bobbing head.'
In the canter, Lisa is aiming 'not for collection, just a little bit less free' and keeping him in a shoulder fore position to increase the activity of the hindleg and to get him to carry himself more. Even in the rising trot, Lisa has the horse slightly angled from the wall, and you can see him taking the extra weight. 'Lots of young horses are wide behind in the trot, I don't want to let him go wide behind, that is why I am building on his strength and teaching him to carry himself. I do lots of transitions from medium to working trot on the circle. Lots of little half halts on the outside rein. He is teaching me things about his father - I learn things from him I can use on Rohdiamant.' Roadster certainly has his dad?s flamboyant trot! 'The trick with stallions is to get as stubborn with them as they are with you - and to have time. You must be able to say, I can't finish until I have corrected that.' Friedenf?rst is eleven and a serious FEI competitor. 'Now I want more expression in the piaffe and passage and in the one tempi changes. Fritz is seriously tall and I look tiny on him.' Lisa is - surprise - quickly into canter, winding in the circle - 'I want to increase the activity of the hindlegs, I don't want him to get any slower in the collection, I'll do lots of small circles, but not ask for pirouette. I want him to learn to keep cantering.'
And canter he does, and now it is pirouette time, lots of pirouettes, one after another, not just singles, double pirouettes and more double pirouettes. 'See now he's in that steady rhythm and it is oom pa pa, oom pa pa instead of dat-dat-dat.'
A lovely pair of pirouettes and a line of super ones finishes the canter work, and it is into a huge extended trot, back to passage, and some lovely piaffe, a little advancing but clean, even and rhythmic. 'I want him to go forward in piaffe. He is only 11 and he is not strong enough to stay on the spot. Eleven is not old in the life of a Grand Prix horse. I let him go forward even in a test at a show, I want him to enjoy going to the show, not to get stressed. The most important thing is that it is even. You have to be careful not to put him out of rhythm, you must be supportive. Work him in a rhythm until he is settled in that rhythm, then ask for expression - otherwise you are never going to get an even rhythm.' 'He is so happy showing off. At the Trakehner Gala, the more they clapped the bigger he got! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry after that one? Holy Cow.'

Going into the WEG at Jerez, I've got Rohdiamant, Relevant and Friedenf?rst." Once again you can't believe how cool and elegant Lisa is, still as focussed as she was when she started out about seven hours ago.
Lucky she has such a wonderful attention span because her sixth ride, Rohdiamant is a bit of a lad, especially on the outdoor arena where he can show off to the girls.
Lisa just laughs and lets him play. To make things worse, things are hotting up in the car park as the local farmers arrive with their mares to be bred - it's Wednesday, and the stallions are open for business Monday, Wednesday and Friday?
'In a situation like this, getting his attention is goal number one.' After fifty one times changes in a row, across the diagonal, through the corner, across the diagonal again and through the corner, and into a double pirouette, you figure she probably does have his attention. A little bit of walk, some piaffe and passage and into that amazing extended trot and back to piaffe. 'He has made the others so much easier to ride - I don't have to think half as fast with them.'
Lucky Lisa is giving two of her younger horses the day off, she may be looking as bright as she was when she started, we are starting to wilt. Time to sit down with a reviving cup of coffee, and get out the voice recorder.
The awesome thing is your concentration?.
'It's training. When my instructor, Ernst Hoya came for the first couple of months, I left the arena with a headache, and I only had six horses at that point. It was exercising my concentration, I'd have to go to bed at the end of my meal, because I was finished. I've built that up over two and a half, three years. Being able to concentrate on every horse, the entire time, and knowing exactly what I have to do on every horse, and keeping organized.'
You say that even when he is not working with you, you can hear his voice? 'When I make a mistake, right away I know what it was, I know exactly what it was.' That was an interesting concept, how your stomach is important in getting the right rhythm in passage?
'That is part of what Ernst is teaching about using the seat. If you think about putting your stomach in a forward position you are automatically putting the horse before you. If I suck my stomach in, my shoulders roll forward, and the horse falls on his face. But by keeping my stomach forward, and the horse before me, we get the result - and my stomach.' Strong?
'It's unbelievable. And that's what keeps the position. You said 'oh you haven't changed your position the entire day', it's the strength, it is my stomach muscles. And my stomach muscles support my back muscles.'
But you don't hollow your back?
'No, you just push your stomach out, you don't do anything different, it's just a way to think to yourself, keep yourself in a forward position. It's part of a very distinct seat that Ernst Hoya has brought me from the Spanish Riding School. It is really sitting loose ? and that's why I carry a whip all the time ? so that I can just relax with my legs, and let them hang there. I try not to press a lot because the more I press the deader they are going to get to the leg. The less I come with my leg, the more electric they are when I do come with it. I use a lot of weight, stepping into the inside stirrup to get bend. I'm still in the centre of the saddle, I just sink more weight into one seat bone, but I am sitting straight. You don't see it, but instead of having to come with my inside calf a lot to get bend in the ribcage, I can sit deep and step, literally step into my stirrup, and because of my weight, the reaction is that they go away from it and they bend. And if I don't get that reaction soon enough, like with the young horse Raoul that I was working today, doing a lot of circles, I step then in rising trot on the inside stirrup, change directions, step in the other stirrup, to get him to learn to bend with my weight.